August 19, 2024

Markets:

Stock futures were little changed Monday after the S&P 500 registered its best week of 2024.

Stocks are coming off a winning week amid a volatile stretch for equities. The broad S&P 500 rallied 3.9% for its best week since 2023. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow added 5.2% and 2.9%, respectively. August had gotten off to a turbulent start after disappointing data fueled recession fears and bolstered concerns that the Federal Reserve was behind the curve on lowering interest rates. Those worries sparked a global sell-off, pushing the S&P 500 on Aug. 5 to record its worst day since 2022.

But fresh data last week seemed to subdue an anxious market and boost hopes that the economy can attain a soft landing scenario. Investors saw good stats on retail sales and initial jobless claims, in addition to strong earnings from Walmart.

Now, Wall Street is looking ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday for more clarity on the outlook for rate cuts. Before then, traders will parse minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting due on Wednesday.

Portfolio:

Excited for this week and what we have in play. JPow's speech on Friday and the Fed's minutes Wednesday. Technically, monster set-ups everywhere. We've navigated this so well since Monday's premarket where everyone thought the crash was happening. Every reading we had was pretty spot on. Now we continue to build for what we see developing over the next month or so. We want to asses the timeframes and respect the monster pattern historically printed during an election year from Nov – Jan time frame. For now, let's focus on today and this week!

We enter this new week holding set-ups in ASTS, SIGA, SIRI, ZETA, and TSLL. All positions look strong right now technically and moving as expected. Queue continues to ignite and we will most likely be releasing a new trade or two as we expect follow through on a few patterns. Be ready and let's have an incredible week!